Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems AC12

Joe

What you say makes sense and mirrors my own experiences - fortunately I only had to fight with 1 AC12 for my rear pair so ended up butchering the S5 and soldering on a BNC. By using a 511 patch you've essentially implemented an off-processor 861v4 SL00 card so I would expect that to work and am glad to hear it does.

Carl

Totally agree - since the AC12 has both Master/Slave connectors I would expect that you could use existing leads connected to the appropriate sockets (i.e. treat it as a combination SL00/OD42 replacement) - particularly given the cost of the unit itself

Aside - given the current shunning of Din comms in favour of BNC and/or Speakerlink I was totally surprised to see that the 861v6 still only has Din connections of the c00 card - which implies its probably not changed since v4 days at least.

GP

Just like the display

I read in the PDF file that is on the wiki on the M5, S5 and C5 leads that the S5 has another DIN connector (DIN5-180) than the M5 cable (DIN5-240)


My distributor tells me the S-leads should work, but this is not right looking at the example: 5. Multichannel SpeakerLink to non-SpeakerLink slave loudspeakers and SpeakerLink master

1st speaker from AC12 neemds M5-lead, patch through to next speaker needs S5-lead.

Am i right that he should swap me 2 S5-Leads for M5-Leads ?
They never heared of the conversion cables according to my dealer.

The chassis part in the AC-12 manuals for the Master comms looks also like a DIN5-240, and would never fit a S5 Lead i guess.

Perhaps i should only use BNC cables. There the connectors are all the same, and i can make them myself.

Now that I got DSP7200HC I just run M lead from G68. Chopped off the DIN at speakerside and soldered an RCA connector then I slapped on RCA->BNC male converter at the speakerside. From the DSP7200HC I run BNC to DIN to a 511, distributing the rest of the slave signals..

Jaco
Yes you are correct there is only one master speaker and it has an M lead connected to it for comms- if your front left or right speaker is the master then the other speaker connected to it is a slave connected with an S lead. All the other speakers are slaves and are connected with S leads in the current 861v4 system. On the 861v4 since it has only SL outs you designate one speaker or pair as Master by connecting to the right side of the SL connector. You probably know all this but just in case.
The M leads WILL NOT WORK for slave speakers even though the 180 connector on the opposite end of the M cable looks the same as an S lead connector because of the pin configuration ( there is one extra pin soldered on the S lead cables) and that allows the communication to happen between the speakers. So if you cut the 240 DIN end of the M lead and replace it with a phono jack attached to a BNC connector it will not work. You need to use an S lead cable and cut the end off of it and add the BNC OR simply add a 511 slave patch. Again I'm not sure about a mixed SL with nonSL setup but for a non SL system the above works.
Regards
Joe

Hi Joe
Thanks for the info

I actually posted on here a few weeks back that a 511 Patch Panel would one of the easiest ways to achieve Comms for the older non Speakerlink speakers. I never got a chance to outline how I thought it might all connect together.

I've outlined below how I think you might connect it. Your confirmation or otherwise would be most appreciated

1) You are using your existing Legacy cabling to connect to all speakers and all Four of your AC12's are directly behind your new 861v6??? (I.e not at the Speaker end)

2) You connect the Master Speakerlink out to your Master Speaker (usually Centre???) thru the first AC12, with an M5 cable from the AC12 to the DSP???

3) You return Comms using your existing cable back to the the rear of the 861??

4) While this Comms return used to go into the SL00 Comms Card on the 861v4, you now have this Comms return going into the 511 Patch Panel???

5) You then connect your old S5 Cables for Front L&R, Sides and Rears to the other Three Comms Ports on the 511 Patch Panel??? This then sends Comms to the other Six DSP's as per the old 861v4 Setup??

6) You then use the other Three AC12's to connect / convert the Speakerlink to SPDIF for the Front L&R, Sides and Rears???

7) You do NOT have ANY Comms connections out of your other Three AC12's as the Comms propagation is now being handled by the 511 Patch Panel???

8) So, in summary, you're using the AC12's for Speakerlink to SPDIF Conversion and the 511 for Comms

As I don't have an 861v6, all this is "in my head", so you might confirm or otherwise how you have connected your 7.1 System

One least question: How have you connected the Comms from your 800 to your 861v6??? Obviously the 861v4 had a Comms Port for that purpose, but I don't recall such a Comms port on the 861v6???

Thanks for any feedback

Hi Ronnie
You are correct.The 511 slave patch is a life saver unless you like to solder. Nice summary- that is how it works.
The 861v6 has a COO card with two female M comms connectors on it(comms port) to connect other M components.
Regards
Joe

Another thought. M should offer the SLOO card for the new 851v6 if they can't fix this problem with a firmware change in the AC12 but that may be considered a step backwards for them.

This is a kind of bummer and you'd think they would supply/ notify you that you would need this box. Nice work to get it all sorted out.

Joe, following your logic, i would connect one of my SL 5200 speakers as the master. Buth other 5200's i would hook up with SL as slaves. (either connect to the master or directly to slave SL ports on the 861)

All my four 3100 speakers would than be slaves also.

In the AC12 manual in scenario 5 i see however that the first DSP speaker connected to the AC12 is connected with a M5 cable. the 2nd speaker connects to that with a S5 lead.

This makes not much sense if it are all slave speakers i would suspect all S5 leads.

I'm finding this all amazing.

The 861v6 has no provision for the old SPDIF DSP speakers so M "throw together" an external box and guess what, it doesn't even work! This makes me wonder what the �400 is for - it clearly isn't to pay for design and testing - must be some fancy stuff inside.

Makes me really worried about what's going on at HQ - and despite all the good things being said about the v6 I really wonder if I should upgrade.

Chris

Hi Jaco
I don't have SL speakers but you can only choose one Master-- so if you pick for example the R front speaker and it is a SL speaker then you use SpeakerLink and connect it directly to the 861v6 using the right side SL connection of the two that are labeled L+R ( that will make it the Master) and hook up the L front speaker to the R front with SL just as in the manual.I'm assuming you need to config the R speaker as master in the speaker itself (as in the nonspeakerlink speakers)-someone could correct that if I'm wrong- that sends both comms and audio to both front speakers in this example.
Then the center speaker (still SL as in your setup) will hook up directly to the 861v6 but connect to the left side SL connection marked C+Sub - so it has comms and audio coming out of the 861v6 directly.
The two pair of rear speakers (which are non SL) are also slaves so you would use an AC12 and connect one end of a SL cable to the 861 marked Sides and Rears using the left side SL connection and the other end to the AC12.
Out of the AC12 the manual says to use M leads but that will only work the first speaker in each pair as the 180 DIN connector doesn't have that extra pin connected via solder so it will not send a signal to the second speaker in the pair ( even though you are using an S lead between the first and second speaker). This is only for the COMMS-- the digital audio will still go through the AC12 from first to second speaker. So as has been said you can use an S lead cable and replace one end with a BNC and hook it up to the Master Comms of the AC12 and the other end to the first speaker in the pair and that will give you comms OR use a 511 slave patch and route the comms without going through the AC12.
Hope this clarifies things for you.
Regards
Joe